All Ten: The Ultimate Bowling Feat

167 Frank Smailes Sadly rain prevented any play at all. No doubt the selectors had been impressed by his match figures of ten for 137 for Yorkshire against the Australians at Bramall Lane the previous week, when he dismissed a well- set Don Bradman in both innings and outbowled Bill Bowes and Hedley Verity. After the 1938 disappointment, Frank Smailes did eventually get an England cap. He was probably past his best when cricket resumed in 1946, but in the First Test against India at Lord’s, although overshadowed by Alec Bedser’s 11 wickets on debut, he scored 25 and took three good wickets for only 44 runs in India’s second innings. Smailes’ all-ten came in the middle of a season in which his appearances were limited by injury and in which he took just 50 wickets. It was an important match. Championship winners in 1936, Derbyshire were one of the strongest counties and were fourth in the table. Unsurprisingly Yorkshire were top. They would still be there at the end of the season, whilst Derbyshire would drop to ninth, mainly because of a weakness in their batting. England were playing the West Indies at Lord’s and Yorkshire were missing Len Hutton, Arthur Wood (wicketkeeper), Hedley Verity and Bill Bowes, whilst Derbyshire’s Bill Copson was also playing, making a successful Test debut with nine wickets. At the time, Copson, Verity and Bowes were the top three bowlers in the national averages. With rain around bowlers took advantage at a number of grounds, no more so than at Bramall Lane on Saturday 24 June where the aforementioned trio weren’t really missed. Play could not start until half past two. Two and half hours later Yorkshire had been bowled out for 83 by the Pope brothers, George and Alf, who bowled unchanged for 35.3 overs. (In 1939 overs were of eight balls. The experiment was not a success and when first-class cricket resumed in England in 1946 the over reverted to six balls.) It might have been even worse but captain Brian Sellers (31) and future England captain Norman Yardley (21) steadied the ship for a while by putting put on 31 for the sixth wicket after half the side had gone for 32. Derbyshire’s enjoyment of their success was short-lived. They went in, and were out three quarters of an hour later after a mere 67 balls. On a rain-damaged pitch, soft on top and hard underneath, Smailes and Jim Smurthwaite shared nine wickets (the other wicket to fall was Stan Worthington’s, who was run out without scoring). It was in effect medium pacer Smurthwaite’s Championship debut. He had played at Leicester the previous season but had neither batted nor bowled. He would play a few more matches but his first-class career would end with a modest 12 wickets in seven matches. Derbyshire’s score is still their second lowest ever, and since the War had only been ‘beaten’ by Hampshire’s famous winning 15 against Warwickshire in 1922. The first day then returned to some sort of normality as Herbert Sutcliffe and Arthur Mitchell took the score to 13 without loss before the close. The second day went all Yorkshire’s way. First, aided by five dropped catches, they took their score to 310 all out, Wilf Barber top scoring with a graceful 100. And then, having set Derbyshire a very improbable 374 to win, they reduced them to 31 for four by the close. Smailes no doubt slept